ROSIE FINN — NEUDORF VineyardS
Rosie Finn was born in the middle of Vintage, grew up on the vineyard, studied design in Wellington and booked a one way ticket to London where she fell in love with the New Zealand wine industry from 19,000kms away. After two years working for The New Zealand Cellar (now Specialist Cellars) in London, the time came to move home. Since being home, she has successfully stepped into the role of sales & marketing at Neudorf.
How did Neudorf vineyards develop into the success it is now?
Tim and Judy released their first vintage in 1981 so the 2021 vintage we are releasing this year is the 40th. They started with little experience in a very new industry and learned by trial and error with a lot of hard work. They planted many varieties and then focused on the ones that were best suited to the soils.
I think much of Neudorf’s success is down to Tim & Judy’s bravery to step into such a young industry with such foresight, following their ability to change with the times and adopt new ideas each season is inspiring. I came on board when I came back from London about six years ago after working in the wine industry over there.
What is unique about your winemaking style and philosophy?
I think what makes Neudorf unique is our soil, our terroir. However, to capture that in the bottle takes a certain resistance in the temptation to interfere, I think credit to Todd our winemaker for letting our wines speak of their place and time.
Tim was a founding member of Sustainable Wines New Zealand, and we’ve taken that further with all our single vineyard wines from our three estate blocks now certified BioGro Organic. We make a lot of compost with a front-end loader!
We’ve focussed on sustainability and on showing off the site – letting the soil and the site be reflected in the wines. It’s a hands-off approach that has served us well.
Our soil is heavy Moutere clay, so it holds moisture and enables us to run a ‘dry farm’ – no irrigation for the vines once they are established at about 3-4 years old. This approach means that the fruit is very concentrated in the wines.
Tell us about the key people behind Neudorf vineyards
Tim and Judy are more or less retired from running the day-to-day, which they thoroughly deserve. They still live at the winery which is great for us to have them around. We’re a small but tight knit team of twelve headed up by our General Manager and Winemaker Todd Stevens.
I think everyone at Neudorf would agree that it takes a team to get the bottle to your table, so I would argue that everyone is key.
What are you working towards achieving in the short-long term for Neudorf vineyards?
We are not going to get any bigger, for us it’s about respecting where we are and working towards perfecting what we produce from this site.